State of the art and future prospects for TEG-PCM Systems: A review

The clean energy transition demands a complete revamp of the global energy sector from fossil fuels to re-newables. Accelerating this transition shall be greatly beneficial for the people and the planet. Innovative strategies are required for this rapid transition to gain acceptance and succeed in developing countries. This transition shall be driven by developing new technologies along with improving the efficiency of existing technologies. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can be a clean and sustainable energy source in many applica-tions such as solar power plants, automobiles, aerospace and wireless sensors. The drawback currently limiting its use is low efficiency. Integrating phase change materials (PCMs) with TEGs has emerged as a promising means to improve efficiency, opening up a research field of enormous opportunities. However, only a few published reviews are available on the research work in this area. None of the recent reviews provides a comprehensive analysis of the application, performance and effect of properties of PCMs in PCM-integrated TEGs. This work presents a comprehensive and critical review of the state-of-the-art research in PCM-integrated TEGs and dis-cusses future research prospects. The scope of the review also includes an analysis of the factors affecting the performance of TEG-PCM systems.